We were not terribly hungry, but if we didn’t find something for dinner, we might end of starving before bedtime. A leisurely walk led us to Mexican Society of Chinatown‘s window, where we studied the menu from behind the glass.

“Hmmm… tacos might be nice.”

“Oh! They have sweet potato fries!”

“Do they have anything small?”

“Oh oh oh! Crickets! That sounds interesting!”

So in we went.

Besides us, there were several tables with couples and a young family with friends at the long table. Mexican Society of Chinatown kept their lighting low, an invitation that leaned more towards relaxing than romantic. The bar showcased an impressive range of tequilas on their tequila menu, but should you expect anything less? If you prefer something a little less intoxicating, they also have five Mexican beers to offer.

Goat and cricket barbacoa taco. AUD$9.90 each

The goat and cricket barbacoa taco is a corn tortilla with slow braised goat (is there any other way to prepare goat?), pico de gallo (also known as salsa fresca), red onion, cilantro, radish… and of course, crickets.

It took a little bit of digging, but those crickets were definitely in there. These were whole and not much bigger than a fingernail, so you could pick them out from the shredded goat and the rest of the taco ingredients. Our friend Elsie described them to be slightly crunchy and not unpleasant to eat at all.

Tostada octopus x 3. AUD$9.90

The tostada options come in sets of threes. Between the octopus and beef, I went with the octopus tostada. Each bite-sized morsel was a corn tortilla crisp topped with pickled octopus, jalapeño mayo, tomatoes, red onion and crispy shallots. The firm octopus was well chopped up, so if you are picky about the texture of your octopus, this would go down easily. I was particularly enraptured by the jalapeño mayo, which gave it the perfect little kick in the taste buds.

Sweet potato chips. AUD$7.50

If you need something to share on the table, you can rarely go wrong with sweet potato chips. Mexican Society of Chinatown‘s crispy sweet potato chips came with tongue-tingling smooth green habanero mayo – a million times better than an aioli.

Beef short rib. AUD$32.90

The SO went with the smoked beef short ribs, one of the grander offerings on the menu. Served with cassava, rocket and tomatillo in a sweet lime sauce, we had to remove the tower of salad to reveal the ribs underneath. The meat on these babies fell apart at a touch and were simply stunning to eat.

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